1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a multi-system interconnect facility for providing communications between central processor complexes in a multi-complex network, and more particularly, to a high performance, cost effective interconnect facility for sending and receiving inter-system data.
2. Related Applications
The present United States patent application is related to the following co-pending United States patent application incorporated herein by reference:
Application Ser. No. 08/261,515, filed Jun. 17, 1994, entitled "Self-Timed Interface", and assigned to the assignee of this application.
3. Description of the Prior Art
In a typical prior art multi-system computer network, a channel control element or facility interfaces each computer system to the network or link interconnecting the systems. Each channel control element is coupled to a port interface for a computer system. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the port interface is unique to a particular computer system. The channel control element provides the physical and network (i.e., program) layers required by the link protocol and provides the necessary conversion between the link implementation technology, link speed, and link format and the port interface to a particular computer system. While generally satisfactory, the prior art channel control elements represent a significant portion of the cost of a multi-computer system.